The Third Eye Meditation

Breathe deeply. Inhale, slowly filling your abdomen up to your collarbone and exhale until the last breath is out. Relax.

Close your eyes. Place your attention on the area between your eyebrows. After a short time, a point of light will present itself in the center of your inner field of vision. Keep your focus there. For some people, it will be beneficial to raise their eyeballs as if they were looking up at about a 25-degree angle. For others, just directing their attention upwards will be easier and less distracting. After some experimentation, go with one of the ways exclusively. In the beginning of third eye practice, it may help to place your thumb at the outer edge of one eye and your middle finger on the outer edge of the other, while placing your index finger at the mid-point between your eyebrows. This gives you a point of focus to place your attention. It also allows you to prevent your eyelids from fluttering. This commonly occurs and can be distracting until you get used to the sensations that accompany this technique.

Let the light come to you. Be available to be filled. The more you continue practicing this meditation, the more layers of the veil of illusion will peel away and Reality will reveal itself to you. As you perceive the Truth, your understanding of the delusional concept that you are apart from the rest of the universe will lose its grip on you, and the knowledge that you are a part of all and everything will become undeniably apparent. Your chattering mind will eventually dissolve in the unspeakable transcendent light of love that is now and forever within and without you.

Once you stop being locked into viewing reality from just one perspective, you will start to be free from habitual reactivity. You will recognize that nothing more than a show has been playing out before you in what you considered "real life." And, just like when you are at the theater, you may be interested to some degree with seeing how the plot turns out, but knowing that it is all just a story, you won't take it any more seriously than a show. The constant anxiety and fear that is attached to a singular ego centered view of life will end and be replaced with the bliss of effortlessly merging and identifying with all of creation.

Continue breathing deeply and focusing on your third eye. Relax and allow the light of love to glow and heat you from within.

Adapted from The Meditation Society of America

Observing thoughts

As emotions rise up ask yourself, "Am I this fear? Am I this sadness? Am I this desire, pleasure, anger or pain?" Your feelings do not make up who you are, they simply pass through you. The clothes you wear, the body you clean, the reputation you maintain is not your true identity.

If you have a thought, think nothing of it. Don't try to stop thinking. Instead, hold and sustain any contradictory thoughts without trying to eliminate the opposing idea. Once you are watching the thoughts, begin to find the moments where one thought ends and the next begins. Concentrate on the space between the thoughts.